Political Science

In the United States as in most of the other countries, policy-making is largely a political process whose output takes the shape of orders, agreements, laws, or Supreme Court decisions.  It is therefore worthy noting that a policy is not necessarily a law. The process of policy-making brings together the contributions of politicians, pressure or interest groups, and the media.

The formation of public policy and the identification of problems is not necessarily the responsibility of any one institution. Individuals or institutions (interest groups, the media, and political parties) are expected to identify problems affecting their members and bring them up for policy discussion in order to develop solutions. For instance, labor unions push for higher minimum wages and better employment terms if members of such unions complain of poor terms. It is common for groups to bring together experts and leaders to identify and discuss problems to explore the different policy solutions available for the identified problems. The media plays the important roles of scrutinizing existing public policy, identifying problems with the policy, informing and educating the public on the problems and influencing the policy-makers and the policy-making process (Barker, 2005).

Just like problem identification, the process of determining solutions to existing problems is the responsibility of all parties involved in policy-making. Labor unions are most likely to have more information on labor terms and relations, while other interest groups are most competent on policy matters pertaining to their chief interest (PTA, 2009 U.S. Department of State, 2008). The different groups therefore need to come together and discuss problems and pertinent issues in order to develop solutions in participatory policy-making processes. Although one group may be more competent on the issue under discussion, no one group should be allowed to dominate the public policy-making process as such may lead to the formulation of policies which favor one or a few groups, while hurting others, thereby creating another problem.